Aramus’s vision turned white.

“Shh, Aelia!” Dora hissed.

She’d told them.

And she’d told them to keep it a secret.

But…

She’d told them.

“Everyone out,” Aramus ordered.

“Uh-oh,” Aelia whispered.

“Out!” he thundered when no one moved.

“Let’s go, minnows,” Nav murmured, beginning to herd the girls.

Ha-Lah looked as if she was going to assist in that endeavor.

Therefore, Aramus stated what he thought was the obvious, his eyes pinned to her, “Not you.”

“Uh-oh,” Aelia repeated.

“It was a secret, dummy,” Dora snapped under her breath.

“I forgot,” Aelia replied.

Dora took her hand as they made their way across the expanse, and Aramus heard her mumble, “It’ll be all right. Auntie Ha-Lah will make it that way.”

Aramus was not certain of that.

“My king—” Ha-Lah began.

“In a moment,” he gritted, turning on his boot, stalking to the stairs behind his throne, and by the time he was down them and arrived at his wife, the doors at the end of the hall were closing behind the others.

“They’re girls,” she said the minute the noise of the closing doors finished ringing around the room. “They’re no danger.”

He looked down at her. “I see I have failed impressing on you—”

“Husband,” she said softly, leaning into him and putting a hand to his chest. “It is not an issue.”

“Aelia shared it openly.”

“Yes, to you.”

“In a way she would do the same to anybody.”

“And if she did it to anybody, she is young, those anybodies who do not know of what she speaks will not understand what she’s saying.”

“I see that is all right with you,” he noted.

“I love that you wish to protect me, but—”

“Sirens damn it, Ha-Lah!” he thundered, and at his sudden loss of control, she dropped her hand and took a step away. “Mercy died before our eyes!”

“Aramus,” she whispered.

“Do you not understand what is happening across realms?” he demanded.

“Darling—”

“Do you not understand, that at this very moment, there are bounden holders throughout our land receiving news they very much will not like and that they may wish to share that with me in unpleasant ways, doing that using you?”

“It will be fine,” she assured in a pacifying voice.

“I know you wish me to believe that so I do not worry, and you are correct, it will be fine. But that will take time. And in that time, I must protect my throne. I must protect my reign. I must protect Cassius’s daughters, my men, my citizens. But most important of all, I must protect you.”

Her face softened at his words, but she began, “I have power—”

“And Fern of Airen has power, and she’s been abducted and imprisoned.”

She opened her mouth to retort.

But Aramus was not done.

“And Melisse has power, but she was abducted and impaled with a unicorn horn.”

It took her a moment to get there, but she eventually did.

“Perhaps I made a poor decision, sharing what I did with Aelia and Dora.”